INCHEON — Incheon Sejong Hospital has performed 1,800 cumulative bariatric and metabolic surgeries and is strengthening its multidisciplinary care system for severely obese patients with underlying conditions. Most severely obese patients suffer from multiple conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes and cardiovascular disease, making precise preoperative assessment essential to prevent sudden complications during anesthesia and surgery.
According to patient data accumulated at the hospital's Bariatric and Metabolic Surgery Center, released on the 15th, patients averaged 102.6 kilograms in weight and a body mass index (BMI) of 36.7 before surgery. Dyslipidemia was the most common accompanying condition, affecting 74.6% of patients, followed by high blood pressure at 47.4% and diabetes at 30.1%.
Bariatric and metabolic surgery is a surgical treatment that improves metabolic disease along with weight loss, through procedures such as sleeve gastrectomy, which removes part of the stomach to reduce food intake, or Roux-en-Y gastric bypass, which reroutes the path food travels. The hospital's analysis found that patients' average weight fell to 71.2 kilograms and average BMI to 26.1 one year after surgery, a weight loss rate of 29%.
Medical staff stress that securing safety before and after surgery matters most for elderly patients and those with underlying cardiovascular disease. Incheon Sejong Hospital therefore operates a preoperative consultation system in which cardiology, cardiovascular and thoracic surgery, and anesthesiology departments participate alongside the surgery-led operating team to assess each patient's risk level. The hospital is also phasing in techniques that reduce physical strain, including single-port robotic surgery performed through a single incision at the navel.
Experts say that because bariatric and metabolic surgery is a form of disease treatment rather than simple body reshaping, a sustained post-surgery management system determines whether treatment succeeds or fails.
"Because a considerable number of patients suffer from several underlying conditions at once, close consultation between departments determines surgical safety," said Lee Sung-bae, director of the Bariatric and Metabolic Surgery Center at Incheon Sejong Hospital. "Along with selecting a surgical method tailored to the patient's condition, regular checkups, nutritional counseling and lifestyle correction must continue steadily to maintain stable treatment outcomes."